


The only love I know

by Elisexyz



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e22 There's No Place Like Home, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 23:10:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15784041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “Oh, what now?” Emma mutters, turning around as she silently hopes that there isn’t yet another impending crisis to make her regret her decision to stay in Storybrooke after all.When she barged into Granny’s, she barely paid any attention to her surroundings, focused as she was on her parents, so apparently she ended up missing that Henry is sitting at a table not too distant from her and that standing beside him, a hand on his shoulder as he tells him something that Emma can’t hear, there’sNeal.





	The only love I know

**Author's Note:**

> For the Tumblr prompt: ["I thought I lost you." + Swanfire](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/177344815049/i-thought-i-lost-you-for-swanfire-im-not-sure). Because apparently I'm not the only one who still ships it LOL.

“Swan.”

Emma ignores him, taking a moment to inhale her parents’ scent and appreciate how tightly they are holding onto her, how much they _love_ her. It’s an immense relief, and she’s not ready to let go yet.

“ _Swan_ ,” Hook insists, and this time Emma bites back a grunt of frustration, taking a step back from her parents to turn towards him instead.

“What?”

Hook doesn’t say anything else, he just points at something behind her, and the shocked expression on his face is very far from being reassuring.

“Oh, what now?” Emma mutters, turning around as she silently hopes that there isn’t yet another impending crisis to make her regret her decision to stay in Storybrooke after all.

When she barged into Granny’s, she barely paid any attention to her surroundings, focused as she was on her parents, so apparently she ended up missing that Henry is sitting at a table not too distant from her and that standing beside him, a hand on his shoulder as he tells him something that Emma can’t hear, there’s _Neal_.

Her breath catches in her throat as she opens her mouth to say _something_ , maybe to scream, or call him, but the only thing that gets out is a strangled sound vaguely resembling his name.

He’s standing there, smiling and _breathing_ , and the last memories that she has of him are too much weight in her arms, tears, guiding David through the woods so that they could collect his body, a damn _funeral_ — “Neal,” she calls, this time loudly enough that he turns, and she almost bursts into tears right then and there, because something in her still feared that he wouldn’t turn around, that she was making it up—

Yet he turns, scanning her with curious eyes. “Yeah?”

She doesn’t have much else to say, so she just lets out a wet chuckle, leaping towards him blindly as tears blur her vision. He reflexively catches her when she throws herself at him, wrapping his arms tightly around her as she buries her face in his shoulder.

“Hey—hey, what’s the matter?” he asks, and she does try to _explain_ , to apologize for not saving him, to tell him that she’s _missed_ him more than she had a right to, to let him know how relieved she is to see him with Henry, to see them happy, and _oh my god, I thought I lost you again_ —

The only thing that comes out is a suffocated sob, and he tightens his hold a bit. In response, she clings harder as well.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he tries to soothe her, and she wants to laugh seeing him grasping at straws like this, desperately wanting to help but without a single clue how to, holding onto her instead of slipping away through her fingers.

“Yes—yes, it is,” she chuckles quietly, her voice muffled against his shoulder and so thin that she’s not really sure he heard her. _You’re here, you’re here, you’re_ here—

“What happened?” she hears him ask, and this time it must not be addressed to her, because it’s Hook who answers.

“Well, we— accidentally fell into Zelena’s portal. We time-travelled,” he explains.

“What?” Mary Margaret intervenes, and Emma thinks that she should probably let go, turn around and join the conversation like a proper adult, but she just got him _back_ , she can probably be forgiven for wanting another minute, for wanting to hold him tight enough to forget about the last time he was in her arms.

“Remember Princess Leia and Prince Charles?” Hook continues. “That was us.”

“You— _what_?”

“Aye. We accidentally prevented you two from meeting, so we— had to fix it.” A pause. “And apparently we changed something else.” Emma braces herself for what’s coming, and now she _really_ doesn’t want to turn around.

“What did you change?” Neal prompts, and she knows him well enough to be pretty sure that he’s catching up already.

“Eh, no bloody idea. But the end result is that— well. Where we come from, you were dead, mate. Sorry.”

“Ah,” is the only comment that Neal makes, as Gold, who Emma apparently failed to notice had come closer to listen in to the conversation, starts asking borderline aggressive question about the how and the _what_ , trying to understand what the hell is going on here.

( _My son. What happens when I find him? Does he forgive me?_ )

( _What aren’t you telling me?_ )

( _He dies_.)

( _He forgives you. He loved you_.)

( _I loved him too. I wanted to save him_.)

( _He dies_.)

( _I can change what happened, I can save my boy!_ )

( _You might make it worse_.)

( _I wanted to save him_.)

( _You have to drink the potion_.)

Emma doesn’t want to think about it. She knows that this is bound to have consequences, that this might have screwed up the timeline real badly, it’s the whole reason why she encouraged Gold to take the damn potion: she could not risk going back to a world in which everyone was dead or she and Neal were never anything and Henry blinked out of existence— but her family is all here, and Neal is alive, and right now she just needs to breathe in and have this one good thing, just for a moment.

She finally takes a step back, failing to feel ashamed for all the tears on her face as Neal looks at her with eyes full of concern, his hands still on her arms.

“Sorry. Kinda ruined your jacket,” she ends up saying, a small smile on her face as she nods towards the big stain on his shoulder.

He smiles right back. “Don’t worry about it. You okay?”

“Yeah,” she replies, and she’s not lying. “I just missed you, that’s all.”

His smile somehow grows fonder, and a tiny part of Emma can’t help thinking about faith and True Love and fairytale characters always somehow finding each other, and for a moment she believes that the universe is being kind, that it does want her to get her happy ending – to find Tallahassee, finally, after all that time.


End file.
